Communications networks can be used to provide a variety of data between nodes forming part of the network. Some communications networks can provide peer-to-peer communication for distributing data across the network, such as for utility services. As a specific example, power utility companies that use power distribution lines to carry power to customers spanning large geographic areas, typically from one or more power generating stations (or power plants) to residential and commercial customer sites, can use a mesh network to communicate various data. The power is carried on power distribution lines from the power plants at relatively high voltages and using alternating current (AC). Substations are commonly located near the customer sites to provide a step-down of the high voltage to a lower voltage (e.g., using transformers). Power distribution lines carry this lower-voltage AC from the substations to multitudes of customer sites at which endpoint (e.g., power-consumption metering) devices are installed to monitor and report on the power consumed at each site.
Power distribution systems can take on various different forms, oftentimes differentiated based on how the power distribution lines and the endpoint devices are used by the power-providing and other types of utility companies. A power distribution system sometimes includes power-line communication (PLC) in the system with each of the multitudes of the endpoint devices being configured to provide reports on the power consumed at each site by the endpoint devices transmitting this data back to the utility companies over the power lines. Such endpoint devices commonly replace the less-sophisticated approach of a meter reader being walked to each customer site and used to manually read individual endpoint devices in order to track the power consumed.
Some of the more-sophisticated types of power distribution systems implement communications between customer sites through the use of a mesh network in which nodes communicate data via data layers. This approach extends the communication reach of the communications networks so as to reach facilities remotely located in the outermost layers of the network, and such systems can be implemented in a distributed manner so that there is no single point of failure.